A letter of mine in today's Cambridge News

A letter of mine was published in today's Cambridge News, as follows:

"What a waste of good land

I see Lord Smith of Finsbury and of the Environment Agency, whilst visiting Wicken Fen for World Wetlands Day, "insisted only poor farmland will be flooded". His Lordship has been misinformed, presumably by the National Trust, promoters of the so-called "Wicken Vision".

The fen lands in and near the ancient fen-edge settlements of Wicken, Upware, Burwell, Reach, Swaffham Prior, Swaffham Bulbeck, Lode & Longmeadow, Bottisham, Stow cum Quy, Fen Ditton, Horningsea and Waterbeach are mostly Grade One and are, therefore, the best food-growing farmland in the kingdom. It is just too awful for the trust to be letting such land go to rack and ruin, covered with elder bushes, ragwort, stinging nettles, and thistles.

Geoffrey Woollard
River Bank
Near Upware."

The picture that accompanied my letter was not published, so I publish it again here. It was taken last Summer when the thistles were in full 'bloom' and shows what the National Trust is doing in Swaffham Prior Fen.